Community Resilience
  Comment Banner April 2010
 

The 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide
  Amid the rapidly changing ways in which we live, work, travel and relate to our environment, the challenges and opportunities for Adelaide's growth have rarely been greater. That is why the South Australian Government, driven by the Department of Planning and Local Government (DPLG) has developed The 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide (The Plan). The Plan is designed to guide development including urban planning, residential development, transport and infrastructure, population growth, and jobs.

The Plan has been developed with input from many parties, including individual citizens, local government, business associations and industry, and importantly, the emergency management sector that includes hazard leaders and the fire and emergency services sector. Following consultation with the State Mitigation Advisory Group (SMAG) and Hazard Leaders a submission was forwarded to DPLG, resulting in a section addressing Emergency Management and Hazard Avoidance policies and targets within the Plan.		 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide
 

The Plan addresses emergency management across all hazards, in the context of land-use planning. While the focus for emergency management is on prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, the Plan is focussed mainly on prevention and preparedness.

High level policies include:

  • Integration of adaptation to climate change, disaster risk reduction and hazard avoidance policies, standards and actions into strategic plans, development plan policies and development assessment processes using best practice models
  • Minimising risk to people, property and the environment from exposure to hazards by designing and planning for development in accordance with the following risk hierarchy:
    • Avoidance - avoid permanent development in and adjacent to areas at significant risk from hazards unless it can be demonstrated that there is an overriding social, economic or environmental benefit
    • Adaptation - design buildings and infrastructure to minimise long-term risk
    • Protection - undertake works to protect existing development or facilitate major new developments; such works include storm water discharge management to accommodate higher tide levels.

Specifically pertaining to fire and emergency services, the plan addresses:

  • Reducing the risk to life and property from extreme bushfires through creating buffers around new growth areas that are adjacent to native bushland.
  • Promotion and development of polices and targets to minimise the impact of extreme bushfires in line with the initial findings from the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.
  • Development of partnerships and agreements between State and local government, and in particular emergency services, with the purpose of identifying risks and hazards and protecting the health and wellbeing of the community.
  • Identification of land for emergency service precincts during the Structure Planning stages of urban development planning.

Many of these policies and targets are consistent with the SA Fire and Emergency Service Sector Strategic Directions 2008-2014, particularly aligning with the priority areas of community engagement and resilience and building partnerships.

Future development and implementation of the Plan will see SMAG and hazard leaders continue to work in partnership with DPLG to ensure that Emergency Management and Hazard Avoidance policies and targets are adequately addressed within regional plans.

This has lead to the development of a SMAG working group to identify where the emergency management and land use planning frameworks intersect in order to progress and 'mainstream' Emergency Management and Hazard Avoidance policies and targets.

 
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